JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Of all the Printmaking processes, Lithography seems the most diabolical and indeed is sometimes likened to witchcraft. So why do I and many other artists love lithography? He packed me off to the lithography department in another part of town, where it was acceptable and encouraged to make colour prints.
I was soon hooked on printing zinc litho plates on an offset press and on the prints of late 19th century French artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and especially Vuillard. The colour and structure as well as their assuredness, but also looseness of execution appealed as well as their social commentary themes. I was seduced by the versatility of the process that can mimic any kind of painting and drawing technique, as well as the magic that happens, actually through chemistry.
Lithography is a unique printmaking process, based on the principle that grease and water resist each other. Once the lithography plate is prepared, multiple prints can be made from the original image. Artists love the richness of printing in ink, and being able to capture direct drawing alongside more painterly mark making, with the possibility of adding layers of colour.
The original process was invented towards the end of the 18th century by Alois Senefelder, who was the son of an actor. The family lived in Munich and Alois went to study law at Ingolstadt in Bavaria. At age 20, his father died so Alois had to give up studying to support his family. Alois had an interest in theatre and acting which he applied to writing plays as a way to earn a living and his knowledge of chemistry learned at school to search for an economical way of printing and publishing his plays.
His experiments with the locally available Kelheim limestone lead to the invention of lithography. The story goes that for lack of paper he wrote a laundry list on a piece of stone in his workshop with a greasy ink that he had prepared and afterwards found that when the stone was dampened the image could be inked and transferred to paper. It uses combinations of greasy drawing materials and acidified gum Arabic to fix an ink-receptive image on the stone or plate.
